Cooling and Trapping Atoms with Light:

Atomic Clocks and Atom ‘Lasers’

Fingerprints
of
quantum mechanics
Dr. Jeffrey Guest
University of Michigan

Saturday Morning Physics, November 9th, 2002

Cooling and Trapping Atoms with Light:
Atomic Clocks and Atom ‘Lasers’
Fingerprints
of
quantum mechanics

The coldest place

in the
universe

Making waves,
slowing light,
and keeping time
 Atomic and Optical Physics

Cosmology

Plasma
physics
Electromagnetism/
Optical physics

Astrophysics
Particle Nuclear
physics physics Condensed Matter
physics

Atomic
physics

Biology

Chemistry
 Our two players …
Electromagnetic ‘waves’ Atomic ‘particles’
1865: James Clerk Maxwell
1807: John Dalton …
unifies the theories of
matter made of
electromagnetism, predicts
unbreakable ATOMS
electromagnetic waves

1897: J. J. Thompson
discovers the
electron

1911: Ernest Rutherford

determines that atom
has a nucleus
applet
Nicola Tesla develops AC
motor (1888), AC power
distribution system, radio
(1900), and … Tesla coil
(1891)
 A Mystery Unfolds …

Amount of ‘light’
Blackbody Radiation
and the ‘Ultraviolet
Catastrophe’

Frequency

The spectral
properties and
stability of the atom
 Blackbody Radiation
Statistical Mechanics: a
counting game
# of possible electromagnetic
guitar strings per unit frequency?
ν 2 MaxRayleigh
Lord Planck
‘Quantum
Classical Physics’:
Physics:
1900:
Energy
Energy
kT into
comes
all guitar
in units hν
strings
Ultraviolet
Catastrophe

Amount of ‘light’ Our Sun:

hν ~5000 K
kT
Energy

ν =ν 0 3ν 0 9ν 027ν 0 Frequency
 M100:
Hubble wide
field planetary
camera 1

www.cosmicshell.com/~miran
da/lab/BBradiation/BBradiatio
n.html
 COBE
T = 2.735 K in all directions
(to one part in 100,000)

http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gr/p
ublic/cmbr_home.html
 Problems with the ‘Classical’ Atom
According to Thompson, Rutherford …
• Atom is mostly empty space
• Electrons ORBIT the nucleus

BUT … there are

applet
problems with this
scheme …
Classical atom should emit
continuous band of color;
Real experiments show
sharp lines

Accelerating charges emit electromagnetic

radiation, lose energy, spiral in and collapse!?
Classical atom NOT stable!
 What’s going on? The Bohr Atom
Ultraviolet Frequency Infrared

Hydrogen
…

n=3
n=2

n=1

1913: Niels Bohr 1923: Louis de Broglie

quantizes the angular postulates wave nature
momentum in units of of matter
Planck’s constant h
 Schrodinger Wave Mechanics

Combined with the Pauli exclusion

principle and electron spin, the
Schrodinger
Measurement equation
leads to predicts the of the
a ‘collapse’
structure of
wavefunction, all atoms
leading to indeterminacy
and nonlocality in quantum mechanics.
Wave-nature extends to ALL particles,
including the entire atom. This wave-
Quantum
nature Electrodynamics
leads to uncertainty is
andthe most
accurate theory known to mankind,
interference.
predicting measurements to a part in a
 Next week!

The coldest place in the

universe
It might not be obvious when you step outside on a
sunny day, but light packs a punch. It knocks around
massive particles as dramatically demonstrated in the
tails of comets. Using lasers and magnetic fields,
physicists are now using that punch to slow down, trap,
and ultimately cool atoms to temperatures closer to
absolute zero than anywhere else in the known
universe.
 Atom - Photon Interactions
Ultraviolet Frequency Visible Infrared

Hydrogen
…

n=3
n=2

n=1
Fingerprints of Quantum Mechanics

• Atomic and Optical Physics in the scheme of things

• Before Quantum Mechanics: Electromagnetism and
the atom
• Fingerprints …
• Problems with the Blackbody model
• Problems with the atom
• Wave Mechanics